“The Down N Outz project’s been in the pipeline for a while. We started talking about it back in the summer but schedules and the usual politics meant we couldn’t actually confirm anything or get together until quite recently.

“We’re going to be playing stuff by Ian Hunter, Mott and British Lions and all of us are so into that stuff. Of course Joe is the biggest Mott fan ever and it’s great to finally get together and rehearse some stuff.

“It has been tough getting together because Leppard have just been on a massive run of shows in the US with Poison and Cheap Trick. The Quireboys have been recording our new acoustic album and so finding time to dovetail has been difficult.

“We’ll be rehearsing pretty solid for the next few days and it’s fantastic. As soon as I heard about the project through Paul [Guerin] I thought it would be a great thing to do. It’s looking that way right now!”

The Quireboys have just completed work on their forthcoming acoustic album – at the same time EMI Gold have put the finishing touches to the 20th Anniversary Edition of A Bit Of What You Fancy.

Meanwhile Elliott has revealed Quireboys’ singer Spike will join him on stage at some point during Down N Outz’ debut set after admitting: “It’s only right. I don’t want him to feel left out!”

Read Elliott’s interview with Mott The Hoople’s Ian Hunter at the following link: